


he made it easy

by SevenSoulmates



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Babysitting, Drabble, First Kiss, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, post season 4a
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29706387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SevenSoulmates/pseuds/SevenSoulmates
Summary: Buck and Eddie are babysitting Buck's niece for Maddie and Chimney for the day. Buck's got some ideas for how to pass the time.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 278





	he made it easy

**Author's Note:**

> Super short something I literally wrote in like an hour. Started yesterday while I was on my break and then when I got home I cranked the rest out. It doesn't fit as part of any larger story, so here y'all go. This is kinda how I wanted to see Buck and Eddie's first real kiss (I do still be wanting it on screen. @Tim: if you want to use this idea feel free)

Maddie and Chimney have left Gracie with Buck a total of two times before. Eddie knows this because Buck described both encounters in detail to him. The first time, it had been a night where all of the kids had been gathered at one place (Athena’s house) and Buck was responsible for making sure the baby was looked after. The second time, Albert had been there. Or rather, he had been in the other room talking to his girlfriend, but he had been there meaning Buck hadn’t been alone with Gracie. Eddie doesn’t really understand why Buck is so afraid to be alone with his niece. The last time he asked, Buck told him that it wasn’t that he was afraid of being alone with her, more that he was afraid something might happen and he wouldn’t know what to do.

This time, when Maddie asked Buck to watch Gracie while she and Chim went out to dinner with the Lee’s, Buck invited Eddie and Christopher over to his place for the afternoon. 

Eddie doesn’t really have much else to do, and he knows Christopher enjoys seeing Gracie so he tells Buck yes. Christopher still has some online schooling to do, but Eddie is free to hang with Buck and watch over the baby.

When the two of them walk in, Eddie nearly can’t believe his eyes. He had heard the horror stories from Chim of having his toilet seat baby locked and having to pee in the sink because he couldn’t get the damn lid open after Buck installed it. He knew Buck had a tendency to go overboard with baby proofing...Eddie just hadn’t expected him to do it in his own apartment.

“Buck...she can’t reach the edge of the counter, why do you have it padded here?”

“What if I accidentally hit her head on the side while I’m holding her? You can never be too careful Eddie, you know this.”

“Buck…” Eddie says, but then ultimately lets it go. If Buck wants to pad down the entire apartment then that’s his prerogative. It’s not like Eddie has to live with it.

Christopher goes over to the highchair where Buck had set out some of her food. It is time for her afternoon snack, apparently. Christopher asks to feed her, and Buck shows him how. While Christopher is busy spoon feeding the baby mashed mango and banana, making plane and choo choo noises all the while, Buck comes back over to Eddie.

“What?” Buck asks. “You didn’t go insane like this over Chris?”

Eddie shakes his head, crossing his arms. “No. Well, I didn’t really get to see much of Christopher as a baby this young. I wasn’t really around to go crazy baby proofing, and as he got older well...it became a different kind of proofing.”

Buck gets a far away look in his eyes, and Eddie wonders what he could possibly be thinking about.

“Then we’ll do it together. We can be the best uncles Gracie’s ever had!”

“What about Albert?” Eddie laughs. 

Buck shrugs it off. “He’s already second to me. He can handle being third to you.”

“I think she’s finished eating!” Christopher calls, wiping Gracie’s mouth with a napkin after she spat up some of her baby food.

“Great, I’ve got this cool program that I want to start with her. It’s called Your Baby Can Read, and it’s supposed to help babies learn to read and speak. I got it for Maddie’s baby shower but she hasn’t started it with her yet.”

"She is only ten months old."

"Babies minds are sponges from the moment they are born! The best age to teach babies languages is between three months to two years. If she can pick up English then I’m sure we can teach her Korean, and Albert and Chim can practice with her!”

“Isn’t it just memorization?”

“Everything is memorization until it’s not, Eddie.”

Eddie doesn’t even know what that means. But he picks Gracie up and holds her on his hip while Buck goes to the TV and sets the DVD up. Eddie sits down with Gracie in his lap and Christopher sits next to him. They watch as words come up on the screen and are spoken then repeated followed by a picture of what the word means.

“It’s definitely just memorization,” Eddie says again.

“Pretty soon she’ll learn the words and then she’ll be able to read them—or even speak them— anywhere!”

Buck passes Gracie the practice cards that have the words written in big glossy colors. He reads them out loud to her. “Eyes. Gracie, can you say ‘eyes’?”

“Eh?” Gracie babbles, looking at her Uncle Buck like he’s crazy.

“No, ‘eyes’,” He points to his eyes, then says it again. “Eyes.”

“Eh!” Gracie calls out again, more confidently.

“Close enough!” Buck laughs. Eddie rolls his eyes, but he does have to admit it is cute, and Gracie does begin sorta gesturing to her eyes, so maybe Buck does have a point. He doesn’t say anything, and instead just sits and watches as Buck continues to play with Gracie and try to teach her words. Christopher joins in for a bit too, before the two of them end up going over to the other toys Maddie and Chim had brought along with them for the day. Buck puts on another video that came with the program, and it has a bunch of music videos of kids singing songs in English and then again in another language. Buck apparently bought the Spanish, Chinese, Korean and French versions of this same DVD. The songs are infuriatingly catchy, and Eddie doesn’t even speak French but he has that god damn ~ _la mer bleue, le sable chaud, les bateaux qui flottent sur l'eau, c'est_ _beau,_ _j'aime la plage~_ song stuck in his head. 

“We don’t know anybody who speaks French or Chinese.”

Buck points at Gracie. “We will once she learns them. I will make my niece a polyglot if it’s the last thing I do.”

Eddie just stares at Buck in fascination and amusement. Buck is a lot of things, but determined is one of the qualities that fluctuates between being admirable and being annoying.

“Eddie, speak to her in Spanish,” Buck tells him. “Then she can soak it up a lot better.”

“You sure we aren’t going to confuse her?”

“No, the babies can differentiate between the two languages. They’re so much smarter as infants than most people think! That’s why they say not to speak to babies in baby talk, but rather use complete and adult sentences.”

Eddie turns to Gracie, who looks at him with a curious head tilt. 

“She’s not going to remember anything I say to her in Spanish,” Eddie points out. “She’s gotta have prolonged exposure to the language to pick it up.”

Buck then says, "I got it! Just speak to her in Spanish whenever you see her."

"No."

"Aw.”

Soon, Gracie starts to get tired, her head drooping noticeably and Buck picks her up, rocking her in his arms while he plays Baby Mozart in the background over his stupid Hildy. It’s apparently the only music she’ll fall asleep to.

Christopher takes the quiet time to go upstairs to Buck’s room to do some of his online school homework. Once Gracie falls asleep, Buck puts her down in the baby pen in the living room and the two of them finally settle down. 

Buck and Eddie sit on the floor in front of the baby pen with their backs to the couch. They watch Gracie sleep on her stomach peacefully.

"Do you think we should roll her over? What if she can't breathe on her stomach?" Buck asks.

Eddie pats his hand. "She'll be fine.”

"But what if she spits up? What if she chokes on her sleep because she can't turn over—"

Eddie actually laughs.

Buck is shocked, his mouth falling open at Eddie’s reaction. "How are you laughing—"

"I'm not laughing at that, I'm laughing at you." Eddie clarifies. "You remind me of me, is all."

"I....do?"

Eddie nods. "Having someone so dependent on you for everything....it's scary as hell. Even when I wasn't with Christopher I spent every day worrying something might happen to him and that I wouldn't be able to help him. Had nightmares about it. Still do, sometimes."

"Yeah but.... Christopher's your son...I'm just an uncle. I shouldn't be worrying so much like this, right? I should be the fun uncle, let her eat junk food and surf the internet and buy her stuff her mom said not to buy her."

"Mmm...." Eddie hums. "You'll do that stuff too, I'm sure, when she's older. Babies...babies are something else, man. The pure helplessness they have." He turns to Buck. "It's why a lot of people are scared of babies. It's too much power to have over someone who literally cannot do anything for themselves." 

Buck blinks. "I...do you...do you think I would make a good father?"

Eddie snorts at that. "Why? You knock anyone up I should know about?" Even as he jokes about it, he doesn’t like the idea. He couldn’t tell you why, but it just doesn’t sit right with him.

Buck snickers and bumps Eddie's shoulder lightly. "No." His eyes flicker to Eddie and back, blinking away something that passes swiftly. "There's no one else."

Eddie nods and thinks about it seriously for a few minutes before answering. "I don't have to think about if you would be a good father. I know."

"What? How can you know? I'm not—"

"I know—" Eddie interrupts. "Because I've seen it. I see how you act with Gracie, and...and I've seen how you act with Christopher."

"Yeah but that—that's not— I'm just good ole Uncle Buck to them and..." He trails off like he can't wrap his head around it.

But that doesn't sound right. Buck isn't Christopher's uncle, not the same way Adriana and Sophia are Christopher's aunt's. But Buck is also not just Eddie's friend, like the 118, who visits often like extended family. Buck is....something else.

"No I....I don't think Christopher sees you as an uncle."

"He.... doesn't?" Buck gulps. "What does—what does he see me as?"

Eddie stares at him, not knowing what to say. "I don't know."

"What do you see me as?" Buck asks, his voice considerably lower. Rougher.

"I..."

A series of snorts coming from the pen snaps their attention away at once.

Gracie lifts her head up, her black hair sticking up all over at awkward angles and her eyes half closed. There's a dazed baby expression on her face and a loud "EH?" comes out her mouth.

Buck and Eddie stare at her in stunned silence. She stares right back. Blinks once. Then her eyes roll back in her head and she face plants back on her bed, the soft whistles of her breath the only indicator that she has drifted back into her nap in an instant.

The entire room is silent for a long moment. Then the hilarity catches up to both of them and Buck bursts into halted laughter. Eddie can't help but lose it too.

They have to be quiet, they can't wake the baby, but her face—her _face_ —had been so hilarious and they had been so startled that he couldn't help it. Trying to stifle their laughter only makes it more funny and there are tears streaming down his face. Buck has fallen over, practically into Eddie's laugh and he has both hands over his face, trying to smother the sound. Eddie leans down over Buck, losing control of his breath.

They sit there busting up for who knows how long, but it relieves the tension that had been in the air previously. Now all Eddie feels is warmth and relaxation, especially as he begins to calm down and leans his head back onto the seat of the couch. Buck is still breathing hard but he's starting to calm down too, his body still pressing into Eddie's shoulder, his knee bent and half up over Eddie's thigh. Eddie's arm is out, over the edge and Buck's head rests on it casually. Easy.

Everything with Buck is so easy.

Eddie rarely lets himself laugh like this...life has always been far too serious for crying laughter, nearly pissing yourself because you just can't control how hard your stomach is clenching.

They're both taking deep breaths, light chuckles still escaping every now and then. Buck is staring at the baby with love in his eyes and Eddie knows he's seen that look before. He's seen it on Buck's face when he looks at Christopher...sometimes when he looks at Eddie.

Eddie stares at Buck while Buck stares at the baby, oblivious to the thoughts ping ponging around Eddie's head right then.

But then Buck turns his head and there's still a soft smile on his face. His eyes lock with Eddie's and the air seems to hum around them. He's not breathing, or if he is, very shallowly. His smile lifts involuntarily, and Buck mimics it.

This is so easy. 

So easy.

So easy.

Buck. Buck is close. The smile has fallen but instead there is something in his eyes, something beckoning.

Eddie wants. He doesn't know what he wants.

He wants something. He wants to lean forward.

Holy shit, is Buck leaning forward?

Buck is leaning forward and Eddie is leaning forward and his fingers are on Buck's shoulder and Buck's knee is on Eddie's thigh and their noses brush and then— 

Soft. His lips are so soft. His eyes flutter closed and his mouth gasps open and Buck is there. Buck smells good, and his lips taste like laughter and it's bubbling up inside Eddie, bubbling, bubbling and he feels like he's bursting. Heat in his toes, warm fingers, long fingers on his wrist and this is so easy. 

Exploring. Mindless. Their bodies move forward and a noise escapes...a moan, no maybe a whimper and Buck kisses him. 

Eddie kisses Buck.

They're kissing each other.

They're kissing and kissing and no one is pulling away but no one is moving forward. It's languid, it's testing. They're best friends; Buck is the absolute best friend he has ever had, and this is so, so easy.

Why was it never this easy before? Why does it feel like second nature to sit on the floor and watch a baby nap and kiss Buck and kiss Buck and _oh._ He wants to keep kissing Buck.

But then it hits him, slowly, like a freight train on 0.2x speed.

He's kissing Buck.

Buck.

His brain freezes, as do his lips. Buck notices and draws back. Eddie's eyes are still closed. Are Buck's eyes still closed? Buck's breathing doesn't change. It is the same steady rhythm but it's close, Eddie can feel it on his face.

He smells so good. How had he never noticed that?

Eddie opens his eyes somehow. Buck is staring at him, open and vulnerable. His lips are pink and swollen. Whoa. Eddie did that. He—He kissed—?

"Eddie," Buck whispers, but his voice shakes. Eddie drags his eyes away from Buck's plump, bitten lips and up to his eyes.

Buck is terrified. He looks as terrified as Eddie feels. 

Eddie swallows, Buck's eyes follow it. Eddie has to make a decision at this moment. How he reacts will determine what happens between them from here on out.

This is Buck, his Buck, Chris's Buck. He doesn't deserve Eddie freaking out on him, no matter how badly he was freaking out on the inside. 

He just had to figure out how to navigate this without fucking everything up royally.

"Please don't leave," Buck's voice comes sadly, and it's then Eddie sees the fear on Buck's face for what it is. He thinks this will break them. He—

Buck’s brow is furrowed and his eyes are on the verge of watering, his chin dimpling. Eddie couldn't believe it. Buck thought Eddie would walk out on him? Why would he—?

Oh. Buck hasn't been with anyone physically since Ali. Neither had Eddie, really, other than his brief stint going on dates with Ana for about a month. But Buck hasn't been interested in anyone, has actively turned down women who have asked him out. Eddie has seen that in action. He went on that one disaster date but after that he hadn't seemed interested in doing it again.

Buck was always worried about not falling back into his “Buck 1.0” days, as he called it. The days when he would sleep with anyone who showed him interest because even for a brief moment, it made him feel wanted.

Is that what Buck is afraid of? That because they kissed, their whole entire friendship would fall apart? That Eddie wouldn’t want to be friends with him anymore? Would _leave_ him? 

"I'm not gonna leave, Buck," Eddie tells him honestly. "I...I don't really know what just happened, but I’m not going to leave you.”

Buck breathes out, in relief or in frustration Eddie doesn't know. 

"We kissed," Buck states bluntly.

Eddie doesn't know why but it makes him laugh. "Uh, yeah. I guess we did."

"Like a lot."

"It wasn't a lot," Eddie shakes his head. "It was just...a kiss."

Buck looks at him, gripping his hands together, wringing them in a typical self-soothing gesture.

"...a good kiss?"

Eddie raises an eyebrow but chuckles. "Do you want me to rate it?"

Some of the tension on Buck's face breaks. He smiles a little and turns his head a way and licks his lips. Eddie can't help but follow them as Buck turns back to look at him.

"No," he stalls. "But...did you like it?"

Eddie's brain stalls for a long moment, the silence lingering between them until Eddie finally answers: "Did you want me to?"

Buck actually shivers and something thrill-like runs up Eddie's spine. 

Buck nods jerkily. "Yeah... maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Yes."

"Yes, _maybe_ you wanted me to like it? Or yes, you _definitely_ wanted me to like it?"

"Yes," Buck parrots and somehow it makes the two of them laugh again.

Eddie feels like a broken record, thinking again about how easily this all was. It isn't even awkward right now. Instead it stirs a bubbling pot of giddiness inside his stomach.

"Then, yes," Eddie answers.

"Yes, you liked it? Or yes, you know I wanted you to like it?"

"Yes," Eddie says with a smile and Buck no longer looks terrified Eddie is a flight risk. Instead he's gazing at Eddie shyly.

"I liked it too," he says, biting his lip. Eddie snorts a little, shaking his head with a smile. He leans back until he's back to his original position. Buck scoots back in close to him until their arms are just shy of touching. They're both facing forward now.

"Did it mean anything?" Eddie asks.

"Did you want it to mean something?"

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

"I..." Eddie sighs. "I don't know. I've never....kissed a man. I didn't know it could feel like that."

"Kissing a man? Or...kissing me?" Buck asks.

Eddie turns his head to look at him. "Kissing you."

"What did it feel like?" 

"It felt..." Eddie holds Buck's eyes. Buck shifts, his fingers just barely brushing the inside of Eddie's arm, near his tattoo, and it tickles and sends a jolt to Eddie's stomach. Eddie moves his hand, his thumb coming up to brush the side of Buck's neck. His pulse is heavy underneath his finger, and Buck turns his head in closer to Eddie's touch.

Touching Buck like this is easy. Natural. Like it was always meant to happen. 

"Easy." At Buck's confusion, Eddie clarifies. "Kissing you felt like the easiest thing in the world." He laughs kind of incredulously. "Being with you is easy. Watching kids with you is easy. Being your partner is easy. I didn't know it could be like this. With Shannon—" Eddie cuts himself off. He doesn’t want to think about Shannon at that moment. The only person he had been with since her was Ana, and although he was attracted to her and they had some chemistry, things just didn't work out. There hadn’t been _room_ for her in his and Christopher’s life, because well...they already had someone. 

Buck blinks, pursing his lips. "I...I'm not...I mean, I have a bad habit of making things about me. You know—"

Eddie knows what he's referring to and that isn't what he wants Buck focusing on right now. He runs his thumb up from Buck's ear down to his shoulder.

"That was different." Everything was different then. Both of them made mistakes. Eddie lost himself in his anger and Buck lost himself in his loneliness. They were way past that, he had told Buck that, and he meant it.

"You..." Buck swallows, clenching his eyes tight like he is trying to figure out what he is going to say. "You're my best friend. I don't want to lose you or Christopher but... I felt something different, something more, kissing you, and I feel like maybe we shouldn't ignore it."

"Should we..." Eddie starts, scooting closer. " Should we maybe test the waters a bit more? See if this is something that we might want to do? Then maybe later we can talk about it again and if it doesn't feel right for one or both of us—" Eddie doesn't know why that hurts to say. "Then at least we know we tried."

Buck nods, leaning into Eddie until they're nearly as close as they had been before.

"And if it feels right?"

"Then we'll go with it." Eddie says, and he finds that he means it. He wants to try this with Buck. Wants to try being something more.

A delighted smile comes across Buck's face, and he bites his lip looking across Eddie's face like he's just won the billion dollar lottery. 

"Really?"

Eddie smiles back, leaning in closer. "Yeah."

"Do you want to test some waters now?" Buck asks and Eddie drags Buck forward.

Falling into Buck's arms is the easiest thing in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Your Baby Can Read is a real program my brother used. His first word at 6 months old was Gorilla. Crazy shit. 
> 
> Come visit me on tumblr if you'd like. Username: SevenSoulmates


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